A Change of Genre

 Here is the third part of Masayuki Yamamoto's biography. The section where he got a career that stuck him for 35 years (as of this writing).

Yamamoto's anime music work went well until the time Itadakiman was about to air. As mentioned in the previous part of the biography, the show went through changes with one of them being some musician scheduling conflict or something similar. Yamamoto was also given no character choice for him to voice. He was very disappointed with so little task to make music on that he eventually left production. Itadakiman also went through a timeslot change and failed to impress the audience -- both from the concept and the late evening schedule -- that Tatsunoko cut the episodes from the planned 26 to just 20, and ceased the Time Bokan franchise for a while.

Meanwhile in MIC, after Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger concluded, their shows didn't perform well through both quality and its toy sponsors. Chou Kosoku Galvion suffered the similar fate as Itadakiman: the bankruptcy of Takatoku Toys, the toy sponsor for the show. Yamamoto was only tasked to compose the opening and ending themes with city pop singer Tomoko Aran providing the lyrics.

As he returned from New York City in 1986, he received a request from mangaka Masami Yuuki to create an image song for his own work Kyuukyoku Choujin R, and he accepted it without any comment. Two image albums were made the next year with a couple of songs Yamamoto composed for, including a never-before-made tokusatsu-esque song. The albums went off successful, as the manga itself was popular (and still is today). This led both Yamamoto and then-teenaged Hiroko Kasahara (who previously only had one seiyuu role) to launch their singing careers.

Ichiro Tanaka, giving us his peace sign from the OVA

Yamamoto launched his debut album almost a year after Kyuukyoku Choujin R's first image album. The album contained three of the manga's image songs bundled with his own original songs. While this album is kinda weird for anison and J-Pop listeners, it was a callback to his early years as a kayokyoku/comedy song songwriter and composer.

The Showa era had ended; the Heisei era had just begun. Yamamoto launched his second album on what would become his norm for the rest of his music career: standard J-Pop tunes, some tanpen intermissions, and themed tracks done by the sensei himself. It was released within the first couple weeks of Heisei.

Yamamoto's albums released by Warner-Pioneer

The 90s came in and the economic bubble had burst, but that didn't stop Yamamoto in making more original songs. He moved to Mycal Hummingbird for his third album, where more themed tracks came under way, and had his first duet track with Hiroko Kasahara. They would later sing together in a couple more recorded songs.

The Hummingbird era also saw his first live album, a two-hour long full concert recording at Tokyo FM Hall with keyboard/backing vocal group The Susquehanna. Listening to this album is like you're in a concert as if it's a dream.

In 1994, Mycal Hummingbird announced its merge with WEA Japan and eventually dissolved. With Hummingbird no longer on the market, artists belonging to that label had transferred. Yamamoto in particular moved to Pioneer LDC, where he would spend the mid-90s publishing his discography there. It was where the Single Bunko series were released, a series of acoustic tracks within themes for each single.

Yamamoto's albums released by Mycal Hummingbird

...and a bunch of them released by Pioneer LDC

1997 saw what Masayukists had been waiting for: an anime album. The album contains self-covers of anime songs he had originally made for other artists, and his powerful singing voice boomed their eardrums! However, Anime no Daiou was released not by Pioneer, but by Teichiku Entertainment, a very unusual one for a label mostly focused on kayokyoku and enka music.

As he moved from the Pioneer label, the late 90s got into an indie flavor, founding his own label Susquehanna Record, and briefly released some albums in that label. Yamamoto also released VHS releases containing digest videos of his concerts, and experiences around Japan and New York City.

The late 90s were dominated by Teichiku and indie labels

By the new millennium, Yamamoto moved labels once more. Akira Kawase had been producing most of Yamamoto's albums since his debut album and he just came up with a new indie label. While Hiroko Kasahara was simultaneously in two record labels, Yamamoto moved to Bella Beaux Entertainment and became the mainstay ever since.

The rest of the 2000s went well, having those albums released anywhere in CD stores and online shops, and Yamamoto providing more arrangement in those tracks. Then by 2012, Kawase-kun wanted to make a change to Bella Beaux. With Kasahara no longer on the label, as well as some other one-off artists, he decided to have Yamamoto's albums be only available through its local shop and get strict on copyright.

And man, did he got that right! Yamamoto's recent albums had seem to be limited to only local fans and have them sold out within a month or so. Nonetheless, they still love to listen to their favorite songs even if some haven't gotten a copy of some of his albums.

The Bella Beaux era also saw simultaneous releases three times so far: in 2015, 2019 and 2022.

Just some of Yamamoto's albums released by Bella Beaux

Yamamoto went from a kayokyoku songwriter/composer to a J-Pop artist with his own songs blending various Japanese and Western genres. One time you'll hear traditional Japanese music with the Rekishi Series, the next you might hear some jazzy New York story songs or a heartfelt romantic ballad. I've worked out on my own version of his discography in The Masayukist's Zone, but it's still incomplete as of this writing, so check out the entire list here from now.

Yamamoto has also done music for theater works in the past, with some notable performers including some of his friends and popular seiyuus. He even produced some original theater works where both the performance and soundtrack have been recorded on CD.

And that marks the conclusion of my biography for Yamamoto. I'll be returning to school within a week, so plans for upcoming posts and tidbits will vary depending on my free time.